News from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Hello everyone!

My name is Edimilson (please call me Ed, for the sake of simplification). Iím a 34 year-old Brazilian male. I have recently acquired a Meopta Magnifax 4 and have just begun to make my own prints. I thought it might interest you to know about the availability of black and white photography materials in my city. Since Portuguese is my native language, please pardon me for any mistakes, particularly regarding technical terms.
Now to the availability of black and white photographic materials:
I have been doing black and white since 2005. It was never a problem to find black and white film. Of course itís necessary to know where to go, since only specialized stores (about half a dozen) offer such materials. As to 35 mm film, itís easy to find Kodak Tri-X, both in the original cassettes and bulk film already loaded into used cassettes. One also finds Fuji Neopan and Ilford HP5 and sometimes HP4. As to 120 film, itís also easy to get Tri-X at the stores mentioned. One also finds Ilford HP5, but thatís less common.
Regarding chemicals, itís easier to buy them than I expected. It seems that Kodak products are the most abundant. Surprisingly, though, I found Foma chemicals at a particular store. Only film and paper developers and fixers though. Nothing special like the Foma sepia toner was available.
Finally, Ilford paper is available in different types and sizes, but I was astonished to see other brands being offered. Just two days ago I saw Ilford, Foma, Oriental and one package of what seemed to be Agfa paper (!?). It was a red package. Iíll look into it next time I drop by that store.
Well, thatís what I had to report. Hope it sounds like good news.
By the way, Iíd like to say that Iíve been learning a lot from visiting the Apug forums, which are great. I intend to participate more actively in the future, probably bothering you guys with typical newbie questions .

Thank you, Tom and Wayne. I will just add another piece of information: I came to know four young women (in their early twenties, in fact) who own film cameras and do not think of buying digital ones. One of them has just bought a new consumer film camera, as a matter of fact. And they are not the kind of people who read about photography, etc. They say they just don't like the look and the feel, so to speak, of prints made from digital captures. And they also dislike the fact that owners of digital cameras end up not printing most of the photographs taken. The pictures end up remaining in memory cards or PCs instead of being framed and hung on walls, etc. Isn't that curious? I would never expect to find young people actually choosing film.